Palm Sunday, tomorrow, is all about power…….or the lack of it. As we go into our Scottish Parliament election campaigns, political power is very much on the minds of the candidates, although with a generous spirit, let’s say it is also about service to the common good.
Our sectarian politics, with entrenched party positions, has become acutely so in recent months as the body politic has tied itself in knots over the Scottish Parliament enquiry into how Alex Salmond’s case was dealt with by the government. As I watched coverage of First Minister’s Questions, some of the Committee sessions and the media interviews and reporting, it struck me that there were few pure motivations in the whole spectacle.
So it must have been in the city of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. A time of sharp religious and political division, but with a hope that things might be better.
Into that vortex rides Jesus.
The Temple Mount at Jerusalem
Mark 11: 1-11
When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 3anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Here’s some triumphant music for Palm Sunday by Orlando Gibbons.
Place of Wondering 